Five Enactive Studies

(2010; revised 2013) for piano

Motion, gesture and physical processes can produce remarkable developmental cohesion and organic variation. These Five Enactive Studies were composed in order to explore the subtle variations, the “grain” that results from the pianist’s individual physicality, abilities, and choices. To foreground these phenomena, the pieces are constructed out of minimal sonic elements – trills, chromatic clusters, repetitive motions – all in states of perpetual flux. These materials are subsumed within the gradual arcs of other, larger intersecting processes, sometimes in response to coordinating some subjective instructions (for instance, “until the point of fatigue” or “as slowly as possible”). Subsequently, the performer, in addition to other interpretive elements, also plays a large part in determining the duration of each movement.